SOUND TRACK TACTICS

Soundtrack for Audio drama

Hi guess I was not discouraged after all about the lack of response from my blog posts. Well I must say thank you to some persons who encouraged me and actually gave my programme (New Benin Audio Drama Series) a plug on their own blogpodcast. Persons like Mr. Hudson (@hudsonuk) and Julie Hoverson (19 Boulevard). Really gave me push. Well by now my audio drama has come online and the episodes are been released. I have been approved by the iTunes podcast, Blackberry Rim Podcast. So you can follow the show.

If by now you do not know who owns this blog, then view my last three posts. One of my biggest dream would be to work with the audio drama production crew of the BBC. (Please God, let that work for me)

On my last blog post, I talked about the concept of Sound effect, this time I talk about the SOUNDTRACK ‘TACTICS’.

Soundtrack as its popularly used are musical background already composed and produced by musicians. They are added to fill spaces in a movie. This is the trend in most

Audio dramas. A sound track is actually what conveys totally, the particular mood that you expect the audience to be in totality. By this I mean that if you have a romantic scene, you definitely would want this to have a romantic music background (probably a song by a famous musician like celine dion). This itself is what the audience expects to hear. However, a soundtrack for a romantic scene must not necessarily be the best blues/romance song of the decade but sounds that correspond to even a blue mood i.e. it could be any sound that would relax the sensory nerve or better still, put them in a calm state.

Practice have shown that these sounds are not necessarily musicals by popular artiste, it could and more commonly be classical compositions by an orchestral, a simple symphony e.t.c. not necessary the latest or previous HIT tracks in the RnB Genre. A simple piano symphony on ‘G’ can calm the nerve and hence be used as a soundtrack in a romantic scene. At this point I would speak for myself and state here that I personally would love to use classical orchestra compositions by Alan Silvestri. He is one of my best modern age composer. Would really love to pay for his service some day.

A soundtrack is of utmost significance as it puts the audience in the desired mood. Using popular soundtracks might need copyright bottle necks and also might not really soothe the desired impression. Hence in your production team, depending on your budget, have an instrumentalist/producer/all of the above….lol

Simple rhythms make a good soundtrack… remember this cos atseo said so…. Peace out!! 

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THE CONCEPT OF SFX AS IT APPLIES TO MOVIES AND RADIO DRAMA VOICING

This post is intended not only for professional but also beginners and more like and expo for radio drama and movie enthusiast.

The concept or ART of Sound Effects is a very important tool in radio drama voicing/post-production and for movie editors. This is a post-production guide during when and after you have taken voice rushes. I assumed that you have gone through my previous post but still have not shown appreciation.

Picture you and a close friend talking along a busy road or a bubbling clubhouse, where the sounds are 10 to a dozen. Still at this, your brain fine tunes your ears to listen only/pay attention to your friends voice (Direct Sound) except for a sudden harsh sound or other sounds like the car horn along the road or the voice of someone talking into your conversation (Sub-Direct Sound). All other sounds that are very indistinct to your hearing are termed AMBIENCE SOUNDS.

Hence for movies, the actors are affixed a close boom/condenser mic that would record their sound like it’s a studio recorded dialogue – just as you have done in your radio drama studio voicing. Thereafter all other sounds after a good voice texture (Which comprises of the volume, mixers, reverb and other effect) have been recorded are doctored in the post-production.

For low budget radio plays, these doctored sound effects can be downloaded (check sounddogs.com I use them a lot) or for capital budget they can be produced by taking resources to the field for manufacture (I would prefer to say this to those that are really into making sound effects – follow me).

Just as you want a car-rev sound heard in a radio play, so also in movie post-production, the car-rev you heard in the final movie was doctored. The important thing is that this sound effects must fit in well in the timeline of editing, else it would be a disaster (When it’s a disaster, please don’t mention my name).

Something you should know is when to use certain sounds either as ambience or as sub-direct sounds. When you are to simulate an enclosed place, except otherwise stated in the screenplay script, the ambience sounds should be very well reduced and given a light reverb to send the reduced volume to a “distance”. In an enclosed place, you faintly hear ambience noises. Sub-direct sound is what is mostly heard like footsteps, water filling a glass cup, padlock/door lock noises e.t.c.

When in an open place (e.g. clubhouse or market square), the ambience sounds has more volume but the reverb effect should send this sound to the third or fourth level of hearing hierarchy. Sub-direct sounds are a little bit reduced but a little bit louder than the ambience, as you cannot hear a footstep distinctly in a clubhouse or market square.

All these rules are subject to otherwise statements from the screenplay script. In radio, dramas where u have repeated scene environment ensure that the ambience sounds are the same so that the audience would be familiar with the location.

SFX is one of the greatest innovations in the editing/post-production world and it is constantly changing. Picture a Hollywood movie where the actors are walking along a busy street but the camera seems to pick their voice clearly. That’s because they are actually recording the live dialogue with a boom mic (which simulates the recording in a studio box – just as in a radio drama) and all other sounds are doctored. That’s was sup!

In my next post – which I am really getting discouraged to work on, because of lack of appreciation either by retweeting this blog or seeing comments – I would talk on sound tracks for a radio drama and creating a mini studio (on the move things) – the HI­­_s and heLLO_s.

I think I need a call from someone that reads this - +2348077229978

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Radio Drama Rehearsal - Tips and Patterns

In rehearsing with already selected cast - Selecting a Radio drama cast, be sure to have already gotten a venue that is quite conducive (I need not tell you that by now…. Else leave this post….lol). Of importance about the venue is that the venue must not give too much reverb to the voices, else you would get a biased volume level and texture of the voices (except you would need this level of reverb in the real voicing – next post) and you would see a clear contrast when they go for the actual voicing. Hence avoid halls and tunnels, under bridges e.t.c. just go for a small room. I advice the actual voicing site/studio if you have the resources.

There are two different ways to rehearse/voice a radio drama

Method 1 – the characters doing the rehearsals as combined, that is, they both perform a scene voicing together or

Method 2 – they rehearse/voice their lines in each scene individually, that is, they take their parts in each scene without hearing the follow up voices from the other actors.

I personally used method 2 for this http://t.co/Zem02VOk - New benin. Method 1 is the conventional way but when you look at the trend of happenings now, you would find that with method 2, there are some overcome able bottle necks but their final output is better. I would explain this later.

In voicing the drama in the studio http://t.co/Zem02VOk i used a software (Sonar X I) I also recommend Cakewalk and Nuendo. Also you can create a mini/on-the-move studio and take it on the move with your cast to various locations as the scenes describe. This would remove some headaches of adding ambience sound effects, direct SFX (sound effect) and many others. It also brings out the natural attitude to a large extent from the actors. For http://t.co/Zem02VOk i recorded in an enclosed studio.

In later post I would talk about the ways you can create a mini studio/portable one that you can take on the move.

Back to the techniques of rehearsing/voicing, with method 1, you would definitely get a natural feel but certainty can’t be said about the quality of the individual voices. This means that characters voice might not meet up with the voice quality of other characters even after series of rehearsals due to individual differences, also when you need to apply SFX to a particular voice as in a phone conversation, you find this method difficult. Overall this is a more conventional way of voicing radio dramas.

For method 2 it has the advantages of the disadvantages of method 1. this means individual voices can be mixed differently on different mixing channels. I say this for a low budget voicing, where only one mic is used. The difficulty here is getting the actors to know the rehearsals on their own and in putting the voices of different characters together you must be good enough to make the voices flow together, that is, no spaces where there need not be and for free I say this, where they are suppose to laugh, sneeze, cry, e.t.c. let the actors do that voice sample just once so that It would be a uniform sound from that particular character for easy acquaintance by the audience and then fix this sample at the appropriate place. In my next post I would be talking about the concept of SFX as it applies to movies and radio drama voicing. Your comments are welcomed @atseo, atseo@yahoo.co.uk atseoritse@gmail.com join with the trend on twitter, or tweet this post with #RDVT thanks a million guys and go make that radio drama

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already worked on radio drama link - http://t.co/Zem02VOk 

Selecting a Cast for A Radio Drama - Educating a radio Drama Cast

Selecting a cast for a radio drama depends on many things as a producer but of importance is the social nature of your cast. While auditioning cast, endeavour to select amongst the best performers, one that can easily socialize. This is because, in radio drama voicing, the actors do really “silly” things with voice usage and lack of familiarity/social-life would be a bottle neck as regards bringing out those emotions from your cast. In other words, down-to-earth persons are most needed and are prioritized.

Secondly, with the level of technology involved in the art, “technologicians” are also preffered. If you are using young adults (teenagers e.t.c. e.t.c), make sure you audition them to know their patience levels. Young persons are most at times impatient and radio drama rehearsals are suppose to be interesting, but when the end is perceived by the cast as – them not having the “Hollywood 5-star, paparazzi” lifestyle, they get tired out easily and see radio drama voicing as a hobby, not a profession or wateva……. For solutions think of innovative ways of making your radio drama worthwhile and enlighten your cast while rehearsing on the art and the opportunities that abound. Above all make sure they have some level of patience.

There are two ways to rehearse/voice radio drama that I have practiced and that I would talk about in my next post.

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already worked on radio drama link - http://t.co/Zem02VOk